If you are looking for some great indie games on the rather crowded and sometimes confusing itch.io platform I have these three gems for you to discover. I originally wrote these reviews on itch and gave them a star rating. Since the policy is that written reviews can only be seen by the developer, people that follow your itch page (turnbasedgamer), or if you put them in the comments of a game – you can check out these reviews here or on itch, if you so desire. So, without further ado, the games.
Colmen’s Quest of Dusk & Dungeons is exactly the game I’ve been looking for without even knowing I was looking for it. The pixel graphics might turn you off at first, but that’s part of the experience- it’s intended to evoke old school RPG dungeon crawling in the vein of Ultima with a dash of Diablo. It’s not a party-based game though, you are Colmen, one man on a quest (multiple actually). The movement and combat will appeal to old school RPG fans, rogue-like fans, and even Diablo fans. You start in a town, explore a dungeon full of baddies, collect loot and upgrade your equipment and skills. It is turn-based and monsters move and target you as you explore. However, you have an arsenal of skills and spell scrolls to collect and use in your quest. It has decent replayability as you can try different builds and those builds can develop organically based on equipment stats and your whims. The latest build has about 80% of the game finished with a 5-7 hour run time, which can be more if you replay. The developer Felix Laukel (@coldi) is still looking for feedback and ways to improve the experience. I highly recommend giving this little gem a try and let the dev know how much you appreciate his old school turn-based dungeon crawler, they are in short supply nowadays.
First thing you should know about Overland is that you’re going to die. It’s a rogue-like with some RNG elements so at some point things will not go your way and you will die. So the goal is to survive. Scrounge the gas. Horde the trade items. Upgrade your car. Find the best companions. But the key is to survive. Think in terms of every character and every action has weight. Some have compared it to a puzzle game, I don’t think they’re far off there. When you die learn from your mistakes (if you made any) or just curse your bad luck and start again. If that doesn’t sound appealing then this isn’t the game for you. But I’ve been playing since Early Access and I like the pared down strategy elements quite a bit. I like that fact that it doesn’t hold your hand. I like that you are just one step from death. It’s tense, atmospheric, and sometimes frustrating. If you like that kind of experience then this your game.
Kids is a supremely strange and disturbing experience. It starts out kind of amusingly but goes sideways very quickly and that’s fantastic! Reminds me a little of David Lynch’s Eraserhead movie in interactive form. Just a little cuter, but no less disturbing.
Guile & Glory early access wears its influences right on its sleeve, with a direct reference to NES gaming with light fantasy elements. But while it has those aspects down pat, it offers a tense puzzle-like experience that can bridge a number of genres and please fans of all those genres at the same time. So it feels like a Puzzle-Zelda-RPG-Turn-Based strategy game all rolled into it’s own dough, and that dough is not even fully cooked yet! So I expect great things from this game coming out of early access. Keep your eye on this one, two if you can spare them!